Wendi’s Wanders

As far as possible, rest thou not for a moment, travel to the North and South of the country and summon all men to the oneness of the world of humanity and to universal peace . . .’ `Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í writings

In 1967, when I was 16, my family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, from LA to help promote the Bahá’í Faith. I enrolled in the University of Tulsa, one of only three Bahá’ís. I studied pre-law but acted in the college theatre. There I met Jennifer, who was a drama student from Chicago. We roomed together and in 1968 Jennifer became a Bahá’í, one of about a hundred who became Bahá’ís in Tulsa that year.

Jennifer was on Bahá’í pilgrimage last week and on her way back to Seattle, where she now lives, came to stay with me for a few days. On Friday we were talking about her Galbraith ancestors and looking them up on the Internet. When we realised that they came from Dumbarton in Scotland, we decided we would drive up and take a look at the place.

We left on about 8:30 on Saturday morning. Its 365 miles from my home in Northill, Bedfordshire, so we had rather a long drive. Fortunately, the rain and more rain that affected the north of England a couple of weeks ago had stopped - unfortunately it had moved south to Gloucester, Wiltshire and Worcester bringing terrible flooding. But our trip north was very pleasant indeed and, after a couple of stops for lunch and tea, we arrived about 6:00 in the evening.

Dumbarton was the capital of the Kingdom of Strathclyde in the 8th and 9th centuries but today is a small, neat and very smart looking town. Its chief claim to fame is Dumbarton Castle, locally known as the Rock. The old medieval castle is virtually gone but the remains of the later structure are still sitting 240 feet up what is the plug of an old volcano.

We arrived too late to do anything but eat dinner, which we did at The Counting House (yes, an old bank turned restaurant) and find a hotel room, which we did at the very comfortable Abbotsford Hotel.

In the morning we climbed the two peaks of the Rock to discover the castle. I rather liked the idea that I was climbing on what had been lava inside a volcano. The views from the top are stunning! Of the building itself, I was most impressed with the cooling system installed into the Magazine, the 1748-built gunpowder store. But looking at the French prison, with all its windows facing the wall of the mountain so that the prisoners could not see the sea or any green growing thing, we were reminded of the Báb imprisoned in the remote castle prison of Mákú.

In the afternoon we drove to the tip of Loch Lomond, walked along its banks for a short time and took an hour-long boat trip, just to live up to the lines of the song. Loch Lomond has the largest surface area of fresh water Loch in the UK - and somewhere in the middle is an island called Galbraith.

After a late lunch back at The Counting House we headed south, travelling the more than 400 miles (and keeping to the speed limits!) home in about seven hours. A very short trip but thought-provoking and a lot of fun!

[tags]Baha’i, Dumbarton, Scotland, travel, Loch Lomond, Maku, the Bab[tags]

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